Pix Ideas
The dry weather has a lot of people wondering if they should apply mepiquat (Pix and other generic names) to cotton. I will refer to all mepiquat formulations as Pix since that is what most people tend to call them. Here are a few things to think about:
We use Pix to control plant growth. Early in the season we don't need to control plant growth primarily due to cooler weather and slow growth rate. Later in the season, as we start to bloom and get a boll load the plant the boll load slows the plant growth. There for we use Pix when needed to control growth from about the 8 node stage (usually mid-July) until the first week or to of bloom (usually ending by mid-July). So if cotton is on time, we have at most about a month from mid-June to mid-July where we may need to try to control cotton growth.
I would not apply Pix to most cotton I am looking at now. I would consider the following though for growers who may have a difficult time applying Pix within about a week of decent rainfall that might occur before boll load starts to stake over:
- Hit the bottom areas of fields where cotton is growing more rapidly and tends to get rank. A wick would be the best option, but you can try to do the best you can by cutting the high boy off and on.
- Apply Pix in fields that will be harvested first. The earliness gained might help get pickers in the field earlier.
If I were applying Pix I would not be applying high rates like 16 ounces on 20 inch cotton. There is a general conception that applying Pix can reduce yields if it stays dry. In years of research we have not seen one application of Pix at rates appropriate for plant size (see Cotton Information) reduce yields. There have been times when it definitely reduced plant growth and visually appeared to have possibly reduced yields. However, there were no difference in yields due to Pix applications when we harvested.
The only exception to this was in cases where we applied 2 applications of Pix to drought stressed cotton or where we applied a rate that was too high for plant size. Appropriate rates based on plant size are listed in Cotton Information.
The gist of this is that you are not likely to hurt yields with one application now but it is likely you might be wasting time and money.
